‘The process is underway’
A new collaborative medical care centre is still destined for New Waterford
Although the timeline might shift slightly, officials say there will be a new collaborative medical centre in New Waterford.
“I can assure you it is proceeding,” said Dr. Peter Littlejohn of the New Waterford Community Health Board.
“The process is underway.” Although the start in the spring Premier Stephen McNeil announced back in April might be a little overambitious at this point, things are proceeding, he said.
“The T’s aren’t all crossed and the I’s aren’t all dotted yet,” he said. “I think we will be hearing more about it in the near future.”
On April 5, 2017, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil announced a community health centre would be built in New Waterford, an idea Littlejohn first proposed two decades ago.
McNeil didn’t provide the potential costs for the facility at the April announcement.
It is expected the health centre will be operated by a not-forprofit organization and include medical services to address primary health care as well as mental health and addictions.
Littlejohn said a site has not been selected yet, although the former Mount Carmel Elementary School site seems to be in the forefront as a choice.
Former Cape Breton Centre MLA David Wilton, also a member of the health board, said he has heard community questions on if the centre is going forward.
“It’s something the premier announced and it is certainly going ahead,” he said.
“It is going to happen. It’s just following a process. Government is slow no matter what they do but we’re following that process and I’m certainly pushing it as much as I can to get it going ahead as fast as possible. We’ve had a few challenges but it is going forward and hopefully in the next while we’ll get a secure announcement of where it is going and when it’s going to start.”
Wilton said when he was in government his priority was seeing this medical care centre going ahead.
“Dr. Peter Littlejohn and Sister Margie Gillis are both the drive behind that for almost 20 years.”
Wilton said it was the vision of Littlejohn and Gillis for this centre — for New Waterford and surrounding communities and even Cape Breton — that caught the premier’s attention.
“It’s like Sister Margie said: ‘We know what our community needs and what we can do to help our own community,” he said. “That’s what these collaborative centres are supposed to do.”
“I’m so disappointed to see our young people dying with drug addictions. This centre will certainly take that on in the forefront and mental health, our seniors, physical well-being, all things needed to be addressed in our community.”
“Everything that needs to be addressed is going to be addressed in that one centre.”
Wilton said the government is still working on the site selection but it keeps coming back to the former Mount Carmel Elementary School site.
When scouting for sites, he said the government first looks for land they own to see if such a building could be built on those pieces of land.
“They don’t have anything else,” he said.
“The only other option is putting it next to the hospital but it’s been kind of ruled out because there’s not enough land to do that and we need the parking. When it comes down to it, this site seems the best for what a collaborative type of centre needs.”
Marla MacInnis, media relations advisor for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, said no decisions have been made yet on a site.